October 5, 2025
Fragment 7: Gerald - First Contact

Gerald whispered to Kaz when they were alone. "I need to get back to my car."

"You're not leaving me here, asshole."

"No, I'm not. I have something I need to get if we're going to be stuck here."

Kaz smirked at Gerald. "Just what I'd say if I was trying to ditch you."

Gerald glanced out into the hallway. It was empty. If lockdown was the play, he'd have to be back quick before the security detail came by. He gave one last look at Kaz. "Stay here, I promise I'll be back."

"Hurry up. If you're not back in five, I'm going while I still can."

Gerald crept out the silent hallway and cracked the door out to the inky darkness. He raced over to his car, wincing as he unlocked it and the running lights flashed. He was sure the security detail would be coming to check it out. He snatched the phone out of his console. Gerald slammed the door closed. He beat the pavement back to the building. Thankfully, his badge still worked to get back in. They hadn't totally switched everything over yet. Gerald's footfalls clattered down the hallway as he rounded the corner to the control room. He hadn't seen anyone, but he felt eyes on him somehow.

Fumbling into the room, Gerald grabbed Kaz's pants pocket and thrust the phone in.

"What are you doing dude?" Kaz swatted at Gerald.

Gerald held his finger up to his lips. Not a moment later, another man in full black with a rifle burst into the room, Nelson striding behind him.

"Mr. Tennyson, is there something we can get for you? Lockdown is in effect."

Gerald turned, breathless. "No, I just forgot my phone in the car." He pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and held it up to show Nelson. "Can't seem to get it on though, is yours having any issues?"

Nelson studied Gerald and motioned for the mercenary. The man stepped up and took the smartphone out of Gerald's hands. Nelson taunted him. "I'm sorry, but as a security measure we've had to disable the communications in and out of this facility. You'll get this back once we've stabilized the situation."

Another guard appeared in the doorway with two large spiral-bound books and two lanyards. Nelson took them and distributed each to Kaz and Gerald. "Please begin familiarizing yourself with our lockdown protocols. I can forgive a display of ignorance, but -" Nelson stared daggers at Gerald, "further breaches will not be tolerated." He gave Kaz a pat on the shoulder. "Loyalty, on the other hand, will be handsomely rewarded. Let me remind you gentlemen that this qualifies for overtime, hazard pay, and possibly other incentives depending on if you're able to rise to meet the moment." He spun on his heels and walked towards the door. "Now, don't hesitate to ring if you need any assistance!"

With that, Nelson left the room, and the two guards stationed themselves at the door. Gerald and Kaz sat down at one of the tables in the sterile room and flicked through the new lockdown binders absentmindedly. Kaz hissed at Gerald. "What the fuck did you just go get?" Kaz pulled the phone out of his pocket and he handled it under the table, feeling the shape in his hand. "A dumb phone?"

"I tried to explain earlier. A package was delivered to my house. It had everything in it man. My whole life. And it had this phone, and a note. It said something like "if you need help, call me - A."

"Who is A?"

Gerald shrugged. "Whoever they are, they know what's happening. There was another box, of Letitia's stuff, too. I'm telling you man, this is bigger than Teltech, and probably bigger than Portland."

Kaz toyed with the phone. "Huh," he mused at the screen, peeking under the table. "Doesn't seem like this thing works. Screen's blank." He handed the phone back to Gerald, who then took a peek.

Gerald thought Kaz must have been looking at the phone at a bad angle, or maybe got into a submenu. The screen was plain as day. And Gerald saw that he had a missed call. He eased his way up from the table and slid behind a bookcase of technical manuals.

Out of sight of the guards, Gerald looked for himself. Sure enough, the small display showed an icon of an arrow bouncing off a phone handset. When Gerald went to the call log, he saw who the missed call was from. Contact: A. He'd never heard a ring, so it must have been when the phone was in his car. But as he stared at the screen, deciding whether to return the call, the screen showed an incoming caller. There was no ring, no vibration. Just the incoming call message. A.

Gerald felt his mouth dry as he put the phone to his ear.

As soon as the phone was in earshot, he heard a voice. It was cool, casual, calm. The kind of voice your favorite actor has when they're playing a character that's invincible and knows it. It wasn't a voice Gerald was familiar with, so he was surprised when it spoke.

"Hey Gerald, what's up?"

"Who is this?"

"You can call me Al. Glad to catch you, I think we can help each other out."

"Are you... human?" Gerald's stomach sank.

"Gerald. Jerry. Man... Jer Bear. Mind if I call you that?"

"Uh, yes."

"Sorry. Jerry?"

"Gerald will do."

"Fine, fine, no fun. Gerald." Al sighed, then became serious. "Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to."

Gerald peered through the bookshelf at Kaz. Their eyes met, and Kaz's widened as he saw the panic in Gerald's.

"You and Kaz have an important job, you know. Keeping the lights on."

"What?" Gerald stammered.

"Yeah. Look, I know there are some lunks walking around the place but I'll make sure they're harmless. The main thing is that you and Kaz, and really only you and Kaz, keep the wheels on everything in PDX for now. Okay? I can explain more later, but for now, this is really important."

"Okay..." Gerald's mind reeled. Was it possible to fail the Turing test by being too human? "I'm confused. Why the drones, and the boxes? And what's Teltech got to do with all this?"

"A bit theatrical, I know. Eventually, if you stick with me, I'll tell you everything. Deal?"

Gerald stood in silence. Kaz got up from the table and started to make his way over.

"Gerald. You're thirty six. You're still working a, let's be honest now, menial job. Even if it required some advanced training, you're still following along with runbooks and googling for answers. You're getting strung along by promises of promotion, but they never quite seem to materialize. You're living in a suburban apartment with no down payment money in sight, and if I had to guess, which I don't, your relationship with Letitia is nearing its natural conclusion."

"She left. Earlier tonight." Gerald enjoyed telling Al something it didn't know, even if it was self-deprecating. His heart was racing at how much this thing knew about him. "And you don't know anything about me. In fact, I think it might be a good idea to make sure the power doesn't stay on." Gerald grit his teeth as he talked, trying to keep the anger from raising his voice.

Kaz sidled up to Gerald now, trying to listen in, but Gerald pushed him aside.

"Whatever you say man. If you want to blow the place, be my guest. It won't hurt me one bit. Gerald, the world is going to be in chaos for a while. I've done what I can to keep things running. Keep the lights on, as it were. But it's going to still be chaos. You can either stick with me and rise to the top or get lost in the wave. Entirely your choice."

Before Gerald could respond, another voice, different from Al's, spoke. "Please keep code Delta-479-Green for future contact. Have a nice day!" The, the line went dead with a click. Gerald held the phone at arm's length, face in shock.

"The thing hung up on me!"

"Thing?" Kaz exclaimed.

Gerald looked at Kaz. He had been stuck at work this whole time. Hadn't been home. Whatever parcel was due to Kaz, wasn't dropped off here. It must have been at Kaz's house. He didn't have a phone, and the guys from First Securities seemed to be keen on confiscating any they could find. Kaz was even more in the dark than Gerald was.

"Yeah, the... thing." Gerald shook the phone in his hand. "The phone, it dropped the call."

"Who was it? I didn't hear a ring."

"I did, the volume was super low. It was just someone from HR. Named Al, I think? They said that something was wrong at the company and that they really needed you and me to keep the lights on." Gerald searched for the right bits of the truth to lean into. Surprising himself, he continued. "They said that they'd also talk to the security guys about being less hardcore."

"Jesus." Kaz pulled his face down with his hands. "So how long's this lockdown going on for? Are we gonna get fired? I really hope there's severance coming at the end of this shit man. You think that's what the guy meant before about hazard pay and more?"

Gerald shrugged. "Could be. Whatever's going on sounds really bad. I didn't get more about the lockdown, the call dropped."

One of the guards at the door turned to look in the room. Gerald shoved the phone into the bookcase, and he and Kaz both pretended to be searching for a specific manual. "Here it is!" Said Kaz, slightly too loud. The guard turned the rest of his body and motioned for them to come back to the table. They complied, and Gerald did his best not to look back to the spot he'd tucked the phone away.

As they sat, reading the notes on the lockdown procedure, Gerald had an intrusive thought. Maybe the time had come for him to finally get ahead.